The present invention relates to stacking deposited documents in a self-service environment, such as stacking checks and currency notes which have been deposited at an automated teller machine (ATM), and is particularly directed to a dual-stack document storage bin for use in a self-service bunch document depositing terminal, such as a bunch document depositing automated teller machine (ATM).
In a typical bunch document depositing ATM, an ATM customer is allowed to deposit a bunch of documents of the same type such as currency notes or checks (without having to place any of the documents in a deposit envelope) in a publicly accessible, unattended environment. To deposit a bunch of documents, the ATM customer inserts a user identification card through a user card slot at the ATM, enters the amount of the bunch of documents being deposited, and inserts the bunch of documents to be deposited through a slot of a bunch document acceptor module. A document transport mechanism receives the inserted bunch of documents and transports the documents one-by-one in a forward direction along a document transport path to a number of locations within the ATM to process the documents.
If a particular document is not accepted for deposit, the document transport mechanism transports the entire bunch of documents in a manner to return the bunch of documents to the ATM customer. If the entire bunch of documents is accepted for deposit, the amount of the bunch of documents is deposited into the ATM customer's account and the documents are transported one-by one to a number of document storage bins within the ATM. If a bunch of documents is a bunch of checks, an endorser printer prints an endorsement onto each check as the check is being transported to and stored in a check storage bin. If a bunch of documents is a bunch of currency notes, then each currency note is transported to and stored in a currency storage bin. Documents in the different storage bins are periodically picked up and physically transported via courier to a back office facility of a financial institution for further processing.
Each of the check storage bin and the currency storage bin is a type of document storage bin which may be of the same construction. Both document storage bins are usually located inside of a pocketing module. The pocketing module is usually located below the bunch document acceptor module. If additional document storage capacity is desired (e.g., additional check storage capacity or currency storage capacity is desired), then another document storage bin is added to the pocketing module. A drawback in adding another document storage bin to the pocketing module is that additional hardware for the document transport mechanism and another document storage bin are needed. It would be desirable to provide a type of document storage bin in which document storage capacity (i.e., either check storage capacity or currency storage capacity, or both) is increased without having to add another document storage bin to the pocketing module.